Our review found widespread and serious misuse of the FBI’s national security letter authorities. In many instances, the FBI’s misuse of national security letters violated NSL statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, or the FBI’s own internal policies. We also found that the FBI did not provide adequate guidance, adequate controls, or adequate training on the use of these sensitive authorities. In many respects, the FBI’s oversight of the use of NSL authorities expanded by the Patriot Act was inconsistent and insufficient. . .

more to come, as i dig through the EFF docu-dump. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~END, UPDATED PORTION~~~~~~~~~~~~

here appears the first dividend from theelectronic frontier foundation's FOIArequests and lawsuits -- the liberationof information -- see the post immediately below this one (timestamped 12:07 a.m.), for background. . .

okay -- take a look -- click to enlarge:

[this image is from page 62 of the first FBI/DoJ PDF set.]

well, "phase one" of the above audit report should have been completed,and delivered, on march 9, 2007,to both sen. leahy and rep. conyers.

and now, it should be rolled-forwardto inlcude data from 2005 through 2006 by december 31, 2007. . .

i certainly don't remember eitherchairman conyers, or chairman leahymaking any statement about the auditedresults of use, and misuse, of national security letters under section 215 ofthe as-modified patriot act, do you?

let me know if you've seen or heardanything about it. this is worthy ofsome oversight follow-up.

again, a sincere thanks to the thefine lawyers at the electronic frontier foundation for helping keep us a nation ruled by laws, not just by men, these last few rather dark years. . .

more to come, as i get time to reallysort through the 1,100 page f.o.i.a. dump.

thank you so much for the link;i am checking the root directoryof that site [ala.org] now, as thespecific link doesn't seem toopen anything. . . but i dothank you kindly, for your efforts,and interest, just the same.

i should have more on this laterthis week -- i have a call intosen. leahy's press staff, thismorning, about whether he ever did receive the phase one auditreport. . .

it turns out that one of the ALAofficials prepared some writtentestimony, for the senate selectcommittee on intelligence, to bedelivered on april 19, 2007 -- butthe hearing was postponed to may 1, then continued a few times -- finally leading to a closed door meeting (i.e. secret meeting -- no data available to the public) -- on june 7, 2007:

Supposedly only 6 violations were found via the Patriot Act and national letters, which I don't believe for a second. But secondly, i am interested in who exactly was affected not just if they were effected. Was it a real terror suspect, or was it democrats or other political opponents? Exactly who it was that was incorrectly targeted is just as important as what may have happened.

I'm not sure how to help, are their any guidelines or suggestions on what to look for, etc?

all content: (cc) 2007-08

the buddha said

IN LIGHT OF THE CLEAR EVIDENCE OF “A HIGHER INVOLVEMENT” IN I. LEWIS SCOOTER LIBBY’S PERJURY AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE -- AND THEN THE JULY 2, 2007 PRISON SENTENCE AND IMMEDIATE, BREATH-TAKING JULY 2, 2007 PRESIDENTIAL COMMUTATION OF THAT SENTENCE -- IT IS HIGH TIME TO EXAMINE THE MERITS OF INDICTING THE VICE PRESIDENT, DICK CHENEY, AS THE LEADER OF A CONSPIRACY TO MISUSE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, AND COMPROMISE C.I.A. OPERATIVES — ALL FOR PARTISAN POLITICAL RETRIBUTION.